In 1904, a boy named Robert Eugene Otto from Key West, Florida, received a doll as a present. It was a gift from his grandfather who had recently returned from a trip to Germany. The boy named the doll ‘Robert’ after himself and had an immediate attachment to it.

At night, Robert’s parents claimed that they could hear their son talking to the doll in his bedroom. Sometimes, a strange voice would answer back.

As time went by, Robert grew more and more fond of the doll. It had its own place at the dinner table and would sleep in his bed at night time. Robert’s parents began to notice that their son’s behavior was changing. They often found overturned furniture and objects scattered throughout the house. When they asked their son about the mess, he would get very angry and say that the doll was the one that did it.

Years later when Robert got married, he placed the doll in the attic. Children who passed by his house claimed that the doll would stare at them from the attic window and that its expression would often change.

When Robert and his wife passed away in the mid 1970’s, the new owner’s of the house said they often heard child-like giggling coming from the attic. They too claimed that the doll’s expression would change from day to day.

Today, Robert the doll has a new residence. He is housed within a glass case at the Key West Fort East Martello Museum in Florida. If you’re feeling particularly brave, you can go and see him for yourself. But beware of what you say in front of him as he might just pay you a visit in the middle of the night!

When a woman from Galveston, Texas, bought this voodoo doll on eBay she got a lot more than she bargained for. The eBay listing explicitly warned the buyer not to remove the doll from the silver casing or risk releasing its evil powers. The woman paid no attention, and removed the doll as soon as it arrived.

A short time later, the woman started hearing mysterious tapping noises throughout her house. She also began having very vivid nightmares and would often wake to find the doll in strange places. The woman then claimed that she awoke one morning with scratches all over her body.

Scared, the woman decided to send the doll back to the person she had bought it from. However the package was returned to her. The box read – “resident deceased.”

In 1918, 17 year old Eikichi Suzuki was visiting the Japanese city of Sapporo. While he was there he decided to buy a doll for his younger sister Okiku, as a souvenir of his trip. The young girl, who was two at the time loved the doll immensely and would play with it every day.

Sadly, a year later the young girl became very ill and died of an intense fever. Knowing how much Okiku loved the doll, her family placed it in the household altar and began praying to it every day.

The family noticed that the doll’s hair had started to grow and so they believed that Okiku’s spirit had taken refuge in the doll itself.

In 1938, the family placed the doll in the care of the Mannenji Temple, located in the town of Iwamizawa, in Hokkaido, Japan. To this day, the doll’s hair is said to keep growing. Once the hair reaches the doll’s knees it is cut short and each time, it grows back. A sample of the hair was sent for scientific analysis and it was concluded that the hair was in fact, human.

The doll is now well known right across Japan and it remains on display at the temple to this day. Many visitors come each year just to see the doll and pay their respects to Okiku, the little girl who passed away so many years ago.

In 2008, two year old Florida resident James Bowman was verbally threatened by his Elmo Knows Your Name doll. The doll, which can be programmed to repeat phrases and names began singing ‘Kill James’ over and over again. The boy’s mother Melissa realized what the doll was saying after she changed its batteries. “I noticed exactly what it was saying,” Bowman said. “And my son was repeating exactly what it was saying. It’s not something that really you would think would ever come out of a toy,” Bowman added. “But once I heard, I was just kind of distraught.” She immediately took the doll away from her son and contacted the manufacturer.

Fisher-Price investigated the incident and offered the Bowman’s a voucher for a replacement. Let’s hope they never decide to make an Elmo Knows Where You Live version of the doll!

6. Amelia The Doll

When Amelia the doll was auctioned on eBay she became one of the most viewed items. On the listing, the seller posted a warning that read ‘This doll in not recommended for the weak at heart or for any little kids to have in their bedrooms!’

The doll’s original owner claimed that Amelia’s eyes used to be blue but they had turned an eerie shade of green over time. They said that once her eyes changed color, weird things started to happen.

The person who eventually purchased Amelia said that he began to hear childish laughter coming from the room she was kept in. He also claimed to have seen her waiving at him and had once found her standing alone in the hallway.